sailawaybellaluna

Thanks so much for the website! The Holland American excursion prices to Lubeck are also quite ridiculous! Curious, were you able to book a roundtrip journey between Kiel and Lubeck? It gives me the option to search for roundtrip but doesn't show availability and let me reserve a specific time. When I search as separate one-way journeys, then I can reserve? Hmm... We are only in Kiel from 8am - 4pm, so I'm hoping this plan isn't too aggressive...

Thank you everyone for the tips and feedback!

Hello, we are also going to be in Kiel in June on board the Holland America Nieuw Statendam. We've visited Hamburg before and are considering Lubeck. May I ask what you have found in terms of the best train journeys and where you are booking through?

Hi! I'm planning for our multi-generational family to visit Helsinki on our Baltic Cruise this summer, and I'm a little stumped on what to do during our time there. So far I'm considering the Panorama Bus Tour or the Hop on Hop Off bus. Any feedback on these? We were also considering the Church in the Rock? I'm specifically curious if anyone has visited Medieval Porvoo and visited the Porcelain Factory? Holland America offers this as an excursion, and I was thinking of taking my mother since she collects European porcelain... I'd love any suggestions you may have! Thanks!

Hi! We will be visiting Tallinn this summer on our Holland America cruise, and it'll be our first time in Estonia. We're all very excited! I've spent the day pouring through my Rick Steves Northern European Cruise Ports guidebook, and it seems Tallinn is a very easy walking port? Did others feel this way? We will be traveling with our children (7 and 13), parents (70 and 82) and my brother and his wife. So I'm trying to plan port days that can accommodate all of us as best as I can. I've printed the walking tour from Rick Steves, and the Dannebrog Restaurant Tower and Olde Hansa restaurants both caught my attention. Despite being a bit kitschy, the ambiance/views seem like fun. Has anyone been to these recently? Any other recommendations for our multi-generational family for our day in Tallinn? Thank you!

Hello, I'd love to hear from anyone that has recently been to Riga and visited the Museum of Occupation? We will be traveling there with our kids (ages 7 and 13), grandparents and siblings and we're all very interested in WWII history. I'm wondering if the museum would be considered too difficult (graphic) in nature for my children? They're well traveled (30-40+ countries) and I would hate for them to miss out on the opportunity of learning about this chapter in local history. However I'm not sure just how graphic the museum is? Thank you in advance for your feedback! I'd also be interested to know what else you enjoyed in Riga! It's the first time there for all of us, and we're very excited!

Hi! I'm wondering if anyone has recently done the free walking tour in Visby? I'd love your thoughts and/or any other suggestions for our day there. I did attempt to email and make group reservations for the walking tour, but didn't hear back... Thank you!

Okay, I need to finish up this review! Time to discuss the disembarkation! This is what we woke up to in the Port of Los Angeles! However the weather would be changing very shortly...

Thank you! Despite some of the hiccups along the way, we did!

I'm glad you had a good experience! We also knew we'd be coming in to a different pier and actually parked right there. But we still queued for over 90 minutes just to get off the ship! We wound around deck 7, down the stairs to deck 6, down the stairs to deck 5 before finally escaping down the gangway into the pouring rain...We wouldn't have been able to move our luggage through that line, and the moment we stepped off, we were soaked. I have a lot more detail to add on the debarkation. Coming up!

When we booked this cruise several months ago our promotion included a free meal in one of the specialty restaurants. We chose the French-themed, Le Bistro. We had a wonderful time! I really felt the service was impeccable! I had a quick question about the wine at the beginning of the night, and the sommelier was there in an instant to offer recommendations and samples. I loved how each course came out simultaneous and neither of us was ever waiting on our meal. The warmed dishes and silver cloches gave it an extra special touch! On this particular evening I had the cauliflower truffle soup (which was absolutely amazing), the French onion soup, the lemon sole and lemon sorbet. Everything was outstanding! We were so happy we chose to save this meal for our final night!

Oh, I'm getting to that part!!! Without spoiling too much, the best way to describe it would be: the worst disembarkation I've ever experienced in my entire life. 💩😡

Well this mini review definitely turned out longer than I anticipated! After the 90 minute bus ride back to the pier, we took a little time to warm up in our cabin! 🥶 On this particular evening we had dinner reservations at Le Bistro! We got a bit dressed up, and had a few minutes to appreciate the beautiful sunset on the balcony before heading out!

After walking through the cheese caves, we went back upstairs and were each given a sampling of two beers and three spicy cheeses to try. I am not a beer drinker and our host graciously replaced those samples with another glass of red wine. The cheese was delicious! We moved into an indoor dining room where we sat down for lunch. It was actually very nice! It would have been lovely to sit outside on a nicer day, but this worked out well for our group and they had heat! We had grilled mushrooms, green salad, and a cheese quesadilla. After finishing our lunch everyone loaded back up onto the bus for the hour and a half ride to the pier. I wouldn't hesitate to do tour again, it would have been very enjoyable on a warm day!

We were each given a plate of six cheeses with sliced apples, bread and wine. It was a lovely set up! Three of the cheeses were aged farmers cheeses and the others were made with rosemary, black pepper and a spicy pepper. I really enjoyed all of them, and the red wine! After this, we walked into the actual caves to see the rounds of cheese aging. It was at this time Ephrain shared with us that they grow penicillin on the shelves to help age the farmer's cheeses. Now ironically, two weeks prior to this cruise I was fighting a sinus infection and given an antibiotic. Unfortunately, I fell into anaphylactic shock about 45 minutes later and my husband was rushing me to urgent care. Yep, I was now allergic to penicillin! My friend asked if I had my epi pen with me, but unfortunately I left it in the cabin. 😳 Thankfully, I was just fine!!

Well...I grew up in an agricultural town (my father is a botanist) and have spent many hours in mud taking soil samples with him. 😜 So I was sort of looking forward to the nice, sunny, beautiful farm day in Mexico! But I do see your point! The tour really should have been canceled. Even in terms of cleanliness, we ended up traipsing mud all through their cheese making facilities, the bathrooms, the bus. It was just really cold and uncomfortable. Even the poor bus driver was trying to lay down towels to protect his stairs... The farm had an outdoor bar and tons of outdoor tables which would have been wonderful to sit at and enjoy the scenery. I would encourage anyone to do this tour, but on a nice day!

I'm currently writing a review on the NCL Joy which was my 33rd cruise, but my friends first. I can say, I can understand why you'd want to make the jump the Holland America. It's very elegant and feels a bit like I imagine cruising would feel 100 years ago. I love the gala evenings, the violin music from The Lincoln Center Stage, and the amazing room service delivered on Dutch Delft dishes. I'm wishing I took her on a HAL sailing, but we're planning another. My next two cruises will be quite different! Taking the kids on Carnival's newest ship, the Celebration and then meeting with extended family to sail the Nieuw Statendam in the Baltics this summer.

After this we took the bus back to our original stop where the bathrooms were, and made our way into the cheese cave. We got a history of the family and how they immigrated (originally from Switzerland) and started this cheese cave. After viewing several of the family's historical photos, we made our way to the lower level of the caves to do our cheese and wine tasting. It was freezing, but things were starting to look up!

After about 30 minutes of waiting in line and signing a release form, we made it on board our coach with a tour guide named Margarita. She was so full of energy and life and had so much to share about her region of Mexico. Her English was flawless and it would have made for a lovely morning except she really prided herself on not using a microphone. So she basically shouted the entire 90 minute drive. This wouldn't have been horrible if we hadn't been sat at the very front of the bus. We both had our hair down that day, and fortunately I had ear plugs in my purse and we were able to put them in and hide them for the remainder of the bus ride. By the time we arrived it approximately 10:40 a.m., we were already a little 😳. We were in a completely rural area with green pastures and cows and it would have been lovely except it was raining and everything had turned to mud. The temperature was also about 10° cooler than the pier, just barely 40°. At this point everyone needed the bathroom so we unloaded 38 people and all queued up for two stalls. The bathroom I chose happened to be open air and I was absolutely freezing. This process took about 20+ minutes and then we were meant to walk down to the dairy farm and see where the cows are milked and the cheese is processed. However you couldn't walk because the roads were all mud, So we all had to load back into the bus and drive down. Once we unloaded at the dairy farm it started raining heavily and we were under a little metal roof where the cows are milked. It was during this time several of us started almost doing jumping jacks in place just to generate some body heat. We were smiling but it wasn't sincere. 🤣 I felt bad because our tour guide from the cheese cave was lovely. His name was Ephrain and he had so much knowledge to share. But everyone was so uncomfortable and cold. The wind was biting. We went into a covered area to see where they make the cheese, and that was a bit warmer and interesting . Things were about to look up...more to come!

Day 5:. Ensenada! Today we were up early because we had an excursion with NCL to visit the cheese cave and do a little wine tasting and eat lunch! We were meant to leave the pier by 8:45 a.m., but the ship was late in docking and clearing customs. At this point I wasn't surprised. 😳 We enjoyed avocado toast and hash browns on the balcony with our coffee, and the morning started out pretty decent. By the time we were waiting in line on the pier for our tour, it started raining and the winds had really picked up. We were so cold! Because the ship was late, all the tours were lined up as well as all of the buses and everyone was queuing to use the pathway to board their coach. Simultaneously we were getting wet. Not the best start to the day! I felt really bad for people who flew in from cold weather climates expecting a nice sunny day in Mexico. I have been to Ensenada probably 10 times, both by ship and driving down from my house in Southern California, so I was just looking forward to doing something different today. I will preface my post by saying NCL and the shore excursions department should have 100% canceled this excursion due to weather. It is not amenable to rain, wind, and cold temperatures. At $129/person it is double the cost of going to the Guadalupe Valley and wine wasting, which is what I often do on a ship excursion. In addition, the description was not completely accurate. You are on a coach bus for 1.5 hours each way heading out to the small town of Ojos Negros. So 3 hours of the 5-hour excursion is on a bus. This wouldn't be so bad and the scenery would have been lovely except most of the windows had broken seals and were clouded up, so we really couldn't see out. More to come...

Yes we were so pleased we paid a bit extra to do this rather than the glass bottomed boat! It was such a fun experience!

That makes sense why they would have added it! So sorry you are still sick! 😔

Back to Day 4, Day at Sea: We left the observation lounge around 2:00 p.m. and headed to the Local for lunch. We were lucky to snag two chairs overlooking the atrium to again watch Deal or No Deal. But it was extremely loud and busy! The weather was really getting stormy and I doubt there was a soul outside, so the ship felt very crowded! We enjoyed watching the game and eating fish sandwiches and fries before heading back to the observation lounge. At this point there were people sleeping on the couches and every single seat was taken. So loud as well. We snagged two seats near the window as a couple got up, but it was near the mini buffet and just too crowded and noisy to read. Even with ear plugs in. 😔 So we headed back to our cabin, and timed it just right so the sun was shining for a little bit into our cabin from the balcony. Just chilled in there until it was time for dinner. During this night we had a gorgeous table in the Manhattan Dining Room at the very aft, however the swells had really picked up and there was a lot of motion on the ship. Probably my worst in 33 cruises! We kept a bottle of motion eaze on the table. 🤪 Afterwards we enjoyed a little more music and dancing in the Sugarcane and tried our luck again in the casino. My friend is not a big gambler and was hesitant to even spend $40, making the minimum bet on the Dancing Drums slot machine. With only $3 left, she hit the major jackpot and walked away with $1,107!! That made for an exciting night!! The next morning we would be up early for Ensenada!

I think she enjoyed it! It was far from perfect, but she's already brainstorming another cruise so I take that as a good sign! 🙂 Gosh that is a big question! My favorite cruise line is Holland America because I'm a little old lady at heart. I love the Lincoln Center classical music performances, the white table clothes, dressing up for the gala evenings, etc. I'm not a huge drinker, even with the drinks package included on the Joy sailing, I probably had 3 - 4 drinks per day, and I typically stick with wine. So I'm not sure I'm the best person to advise on this. Hopefully others can chime in. I feel like Carnival and Royal do a great job of "drinks and sun", but they're also laden with kids and families. The Discovery Princess had a lot of lovely bars and very few children when I sailed her recently. Perhaps that's an option?

One thing I did forget to mention yesterday... During the evening we ended up going to the theater to hear Levity Comedy with Dan Gabriel. Now on the first day when we first boarded the ship, I got on the iTV to reserve comedy shows, but they were already reserved! We noticed this show was added after the fact and didn't require reservations. I assume a lot of people weren't able to get into other shows so they added one in the theater. I do enjoy seeing comedians on ships. My husband and I were recently on one of the comedy cruises on the Discovery Princess several weeks prior, and thought their comedians were hysterical! I found Dan Gabriel to be very average and not so funny. 😐 Of course everyone has a different opinion as this is a matter of personal taste. But I would have preferred to stay in the Sugarcane Mojito Bar listening to Tropical Fusion! If you're interested in seeing the comedy shows, make your reservations early!